Meanwhile the plumbing is now complete on the stove meaning we have central heating and a constant supply of hot water, and a much lower electricity bill! We have a wood store (a converted old animal trailer) full of sycamore that Brian cut down when we first moved in so its practically free.
This is the view from our garden, looking out over the lake. We knew when we bought the house that we were quite close to a turlough (a lake that dries out in summer), but this winter it has come even closer than normal. The common is now part of the lake, including a few of our smaller and unfenced fields around its edge. The lake attracts a lot of birds, geese and swans particularly.
Meanwhile the plumbing is now complete on the stove meaning we have central heating and a constant supply of hot water, and a much lower electricity bill! We have a wood store (a converted old animal trailer) full of sycamore that Brian cut down when we first moved in so its practically free.
4 Comments
We have gradually been getting more information about the history of our cottage and the village, so I thought it would be nice to share it with anyone who is interested. I mentioned some of the more recent stuff along with an old aerial photo in my post in Jan. The name Ballybackagh means the townland (Bailey) of the lame person (bacagh). Just up the lane is a ring fort and hut circle site, so people have been living in the area a long time. The tower or castle behind our house was probably built in the 1300's when the Norman Richard de Burgh was trying to consolidate his hold over the area, given to his father by Henry II after the Anglo-Norman invasion. An early recorded resident is Stephen D'Arcy of Ballybacagh, who was born about 1650 and died in 1679. John D'Arcy of Kinlough, Shrule was a large local landowner and Stephen was probably his son. Stephen was married and had children but nothing names them as he was a younger son. In October 1642 Patrick D'Arcy, described as an ancestor of the D'Arcys of Ballybackagh, Houndswood and Gurteen, was a Catholic and a famous lawyer living in Galway city. He was involved in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which degenerated into a civil war known as the Irish Confederate Wars. In the 1650's Cromwell re-conquered Ireland and in 1655 all Catholics were expelled from Galway city. Like most catholic landowners Patrick D'Arcy had already had his lands confiscated through the Act for the Settlement of Ireland. He apparently took refuge at Ballybackagh until the Restoration when he was able to practice law again. The Books of Survey and Distribution were compiled around 1680 to record all the land that had been confiscated and re-distributed to protestants. These list the Townland of Ballybackagh as having been owned in 1641 by Sir Richard Blake (Catholic) who may have been Stephen D'Arcy's maternal grandfather as John D'Arcy's first wife was a Blake. Ballybackagh is described as containing 78 acres of profitable land, all of which was forfeited. In 1670 Ballybackagh was owned by Robert Blake (Protestant). Robert Blake may have been a relation of Sir Richard Blake who managed to buy the family lands back after the confiscations. Cromwell pulled down a lot of the fortified tower houses in the Shrule area in 1652, so the tower at Ballybackagh may have been damaged or demolished at that time. It is possible that Stephen D'Arcy or his immediate successors built a new building (that became our house?) after the tower house was pulled down, so in the late 1600's. The house appears on the first Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland compiled between 1829-41. Most of the other buildings shown no longer exist though a couple of surviving stone outbuildings (not ours) may also be shown. The area was the worst hit by the potato famine in 1846 as over 90% of the population depended solely on the potato. Over the period 1841-1851 the population of county Mayo fell by almost 30% due to death and emigration. Things didn't improve much afterwards due to erratic weather conditions, poor harvests and harsh land agents. The eviction rate in the area in 1881 was at its highest level since 1855. At least some of the population of Ballybackagh survived though, or the village was subsequently re-populated, as another set of Ordnance Survey maps compiled 1897-1913 shows the house surrounded by even more additional buildings that no longer exist. The parlour addition on the end is shown as not lining up with the main house, so may have been an early one that was later replaced, or even a separate building. The 1901 census lists 32 people living in Ballybackagh, including Michael and Bridget Brennan (aged 65 and 60) and their son Patrick Brennan (aged 23) who lived in our house. There is also the Laffy family, which is our neighbour Johnny's surname, and a whole lot of Murphy's. Sheila Murphy is another neighbour, but most of her family are now in America. The other families are Walsh, Mallett and Connell. One of these three families must have been the blacksmith's, whose forge and house are still just about visible though very overgrown with trees. By the 1911 census Patrick Brennan had married Mary. The village's population had risen to 37 with the same family names. The current population is around half that, depending on where you draw the boundary of the village. Patrick and Mary Brennan had twelve children who all grew up in our house. Five of them are still alive and living in the local area today. Apparently they were a very musical family and often had musical evenings with the neighbours. Weddings and other social events for the village were held on top of the ruined tower. Their son Thomas Brennan inherited the house and lived in it till he died aged 97 years old. Another son married Sadie Brennan and built a house across the track (now empty) and then later a bungalow on the other side of the road where Sadie died last year. One of their children, Patrick Brennan, still lives in the village with his family in a new house.
I had an interesting chat with our neighbour this Halloween, as he had managed to dig out of his attic an aerial photograph of his mother's old house and our house from 35 years ago. At this point the new roof had not yet gone on so it was thatched with a corrugated roof on the extension. The hay barn was pretty new and had just been painted a few days before the picture was taken (you can see the compressor still in the field in front of it).
At this time there were three houses all grouped together, ours, his mothers (to the right) and a small house between our front garden and the road which housed two old tailors, one with a wooden leg. Talking over the history, apparently the shed with the green corrugated roof in this picture was also originally a house, plus there were a further two houses close to where our shed now is (one behind the shed on what is now our land and one on the other side of the wall). The house in front of our garden is now completely gone as the owner took the rubble away for building materials some years ago. The buildings across the road are still mostly there though, just surrounded by trees. My parents have been staying in Cong for a week, during which we took the chance to go out on Lough Corrib. This is a huge lake (44,000 acres) very close to us which dominates the whole area. Although it is a freshwater lake it often seems like we are close to the coast, as the lake has its own beaches, irelands and (lots of) fishermen. Its surrounded on the far side by the mountains of Joyce's Country and Connemara. There is also lots of interesting archeaology, such as a 5th century church and the legible Christian gravestone of St Patricks nephew. Most recently a number of log boats have been found on the bottom, some viking and one even older - 4,500 years old. The boat stopped in at Ashwood Castle giving us a chance to get a good look at it. The castle was the country estate of the Guinness family and is now a posh hotel that is very popular with film stars. All the pubs and restaurants around here have great fish, salmon in particular is practically a staple of the area. We have been regularly receiving gifts of fruit, eggs etc from our neighbours, but this trout was our most recent gift - freshly caught that day. I did fillet it, sort of, but definately need more practise!
Freya and I went for a walk at Cong this afternoon, a good reminder of what a lovely area this will be to live in once the major house stuff is done. Freya particularly likes the Monk's fishing house, which she calls her small castle. It's very different to the area around our house even though its so close, with miles of lovely woods and lots of running water joining the two huge Lough's. Below are some pictures I took on the walk with my phone (so excuse the poor quality). We are spending the night at the Cong youth hostel to get a shower and a good nights sleep. We paid over the odds booking the room online, but luckily the lady who runs it felt guilty about this and has said we can use her coin-op laundry, showers and cooking facilities whenever we want whilst we get the house sorted - so it was well worth it! All the moving is now done, including Trigger who arrived yesterday afternoon. It got a bit stressful because the lorry driver got lost and scratched his lorry, in the end I had to walk Trigger 1.5 miles to his new home. He was a very good boy though, and I think the walk actually helped settle him down. Huge thanks to Anna and Bev who got him on the lorry in Somerset at 2am, complete with plaited mane and tail. He is currently relaxing in what will be the garden. We've already started emptying the house, made more urgent by the decided whiff of smoke (both from the fireplace / range and cigarettes I suspect) which seems to hang around all the old furnishings. The process left me with the question - exactly how many crucifixes can you get per room? We even had one inside a light bulb. Very little of the furniture is worth keeping so we're getting ready for a big bonfire! Since we are spending as much time as possible outside at the moment, I bought myself an early birthday present (although I think Freya is using it more). Dad and Freya were both fast asleep on this the first night I got it (whilst I blew up the inflatable double bed). As I mentioned earlier all of the neighbours have been really welcoming. Everyone has been around to say hello, and bought cards and presents. I took a picture of all the cards and presents (below) but we've had even more since then. Our closest neighbour is a scotsman and he very kindly gave me a lift back to the lorry to pick up my stuff after the long walk with Trigger.
|
This Is..
Laura Nash and Brian Brett's blog about our move to Ireland. Archives
December 2020
Categories
All
|